Monday, April 6, 2009

Where have all the women gone??

This appeared in The Week. I am off to Delhi tomorrow to check out the Garam Hawa in the Capital. My next post will be on thursday on my return. I got back late this evening from a long shoot to find a courier package from Amitabh Bachchan. I thought he had sent me another missive in connection with something I'd written. Mais non, it was a hefty tome about Jug Suraiya's article published in the Times of India on 2nd March. This was an emotional and anguished reaction to Jug's piece titled 'Slumdog Divide.' Amitabh has analysed Jug's 'Subverse' column virtually line by line , and done a surgically perfect job of taking it apart. I agree with Amitabh's basic argument and am surprised that Jug could have committed the factual blunders he has listed out. It's also good to know that there is someone out there who cares enough to set the record straight so very scrupulously. But Jug is what is called a 'Humour writer'. So, I don't really know whether or not Amitabh's outrage and righteous anger are a little misplaced here. But the fact that Amitabh has invested so much time and energy into challenging Jug's every thought on the subject is terrific. I like passion. If you feel strongly about an issue, give it your all. Don't hold back. It remains to be seen whether the editor of the TOI decides to publish the unedited version of Amitabh's eloquent rebuttal.

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Two Bihari Bigmouths for the price of one?? Shatrughan Sinha is pitted against Shekhar Suman in Patna. Suman was all deference and humility while talking about his 'brother' Sinha. But Sinha could not hold back the bombast as he claimed he was the asli Bihari Babu - and he even refused to acknowledge Suman by name, preferrring to refer to him as 'That gentleman'. Theek hai. Now that 'The Suman and Sinha Show' is on the road - sit back and enjoy the fun. Question is - will Suman's honewalli bahu, Kangana Ranaut, campaign for him ? If so, what will she be not wearing??

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Where have all the women gone….??

The elections are upon us… and women are missing in action. One would have thought by now political parties across the board would have woken up to ground realities that women count – literally!! Besides, look at the ladies who are calling the shots as party bosses – Sonia, Maya, Mamata, Jayalalithaa, Brinda – shouldn’t their spectacular success tell the men something? More importantly, shouldn’t these very women be looking for female candidates ? Apparently, that is not happening. And the number of females in the fray remains dismally, disappointingly small. Not a single political party has announced any meaningful programmes designed for women so far. And I’m not talking about reservations, since I have always been opposed to quota systems of any kind. I want to hear about specifics – something at a basic level that will ensure a better future for the next generation ( too late to do anything of consequence for the present one). Nobody has come up with a single proposal so far – not even a promise to provide something as essential as toilets in our villages where women still have to wait for darkness to relieve themselves. Imagine that in the 21st century. A toilet can transform the life of a village. But it remains a low priority. A village equipped with a toilet and school for girls is capable of changing society at large. Perhaps, that is the real fear. Perhaps that’s precisely what our netas don’t want. But since ‘change’ is being touted this time, and is the new magic mantra, how about starting at latrine level?? Change is what Barack Obama promised and cruised to victory. Change is what India needs. Change can come from women. But it may not be the sort of change entrenched politicians want. They would prefer to keep our womenfolk ignorant, insecure and hungry. It’s an age-old trick that ensures dominance and control over the disempowered. But what these politicians are missing out on is the potential for turning this so-called ‘disadvantage’ into an advantage. If they co-opt the women of this country into the mainstream of decision making, it will definitely benefit them! Since politicians are necessarily self-seeking, they must realize the potential of this enormous vote bank. Any party that places women up there in its manifesto will win far many more supporters than by discussing the 123 treaty which goes over most people’s heads anyway. But I don’t see it happening. I was talking to a young, dynamic editor of a powerful business publication the other day. I asked him bluntly why they ignored women as jury members while deciding the winners of their prestigious business awards. He naively told me that the reason was simple. According to him, women were incapable of wading through reams of balance sheets and financial papers that needed to be processed before short listing candidates. My look of absolute horror did not deter this young man from expanding on his theory that women really did not understand the intricacies of company profiles, and there weren’t enough ‘qualified’ women around in the first place. When I mentioned a few, including Indra Nooyi, he grinned and said, “ Well…. she is an exception.” Ha! So much for gender equality, even in media. I wondered aloud how many men on that damned jury of theirs could decode balance sheets themselves… and whether they even bothered to. Most of these awards follow the old boys’ network practices – men award other men knowing it will be their turn soon. So it is in politics, too.Take a look at this statistic: just 44 women made it to the Lok Sabha in the 2004 elections out of 539 candidates. So far, in ‘progressive’ Maharashtra, only 5 women are in the fray for 48 Lok Sabha seats. I don’t see that number going up very much higher in the coming weeks. A candidate’s ability is what counts above and beyond gender. Does this number mean we are not confident about the ability of our women to represent us in government?? It is a matter of personal disappointment that I say this - for women’s voices to be heard, we have to desexualize our mindset. The easy route is to throw brainless Bollywood actresses into the ring and exploit their sex appeal – the surest way to insult all women . I’d rather such a seat be given to a more deserving man. Since these elections are being touted as the ultimate photo- op, why not use the same sexist yardstick to pick male candidates. Going by that, I guess if John Abraham decides to contest, his butt will win hands down!!,

Would you please stop being so condescending and downright mean. What is your problem. In an separate post, you had mentioned about the insults to Banglore women and the near thrashing. I assumed you had graduated to be the bastion of women rights. How wrong I was.

Atleast the brainless Bollywood actresses have the guts in them to stand up to a man's world and claim their rights. Right or wrong, Nafisa Ali stands up for something and contests a democractic election. Why blame a man for all the wrongs in the country. The same people who may look down upon women, elected IG, Jaya, Maya and Pratibha to power. All these women had to do was stand up.

And here you are, sitting in front of computer, demeaning any target you get. I wonder who is next. I asked you a question in your yesterday's post. I think I got my answer in today's post.

I will read the jug surya 2nd March 'slumdog divide' once again to understand Mr Bachan's problem. He seems to have taken a personal dislike to anything SM. he is going at such lengths only to prove what I have been saying - He has put his foot in his mouth as soon as SM won the Golden Globe Award. His is the case of 'khisyaani billi khamba noache'. The man just can't let go. I dont know how you can call it 'passion'. It's plain EGO in caps. His ego. He is entitled to his opinion but he can't change the whole world's opinion. Come on, 8 Oscars is enough proof that the SM movie is a winner like never before. Move over Mr Bachhan, here comes the new era movies.! I think he should now be ignored as far as Slumdog is concerned. I hope the TOI ignores him..!!

Your take on the 2 Bihari Babus is fun..! really let's sit back and watch this drama unfold. But I think SS's chances are pretty bleak in Bihar even if he flaunts Kangana Raut.

This is where women have gone...! The Kangana Raut way..!! Answer to your question. This damn Bollywood has brought down the image of Indian women to such low ebbs, that the normal women find it a tough going to bring any semblance of deceny in minds of people about our women. The men are exploiting the situation, as always. Let's take this young dynamic editor of the business publication, you met. See he got away with sh*t. They all do. The Indian man is scared, so he won't let the women come frwrd. It's a policy like the netas have. Dont educate people so they can keep exploiting them for power, cash everything. Promise the world, but give nothing when elected. Ironical indeed.Our men follow this policy...'dont let women step into the foray' literally. Keep promising and talking about women's rights, education, anti dowry laws etc, but do nothing about it. It works, has been working so far.

Have a great trip to delhi, and bring the heat of it's garam hawa to the blog world.

One woman like Maya can make lakhs of men sweat. One woman like Mamata can make even the mighty Tata and the CPM honchos to give up. One Jaya is waiting for her turn to make everyone dance to her tunes. We know what IG did. If there are more women like this, the country will become a threat to itself. The SP will never allow its women to override and all their women MPs are wallflowers. Poor Jug Suraiya has to eat his words with his bunny. He should stick to humour rather than writing angry pieces about Bachchan, making personal remarks.

Amitabh has lost it and he is loosing more from blog than gaining anything.

What surprised me most was that he also got upset about TOI reporter calling Aishwarya Rai a manglik and AB thinks it is a curse. I think the REAL CURSE for him should be the many relationships of Aishwarya Rai and giving a kissing scene in movies just before getting married.

Since she is considered role model for Indian girls that's why there are plenty of sl_ts mushrooming in bollywood to fill in her shoes.

Both politics and bollywood are DIRTY professions in today's India. But politics is boring as well...like Pratibha patil... and hence the statistics you mentioned.

India needs to find a GOOD role model for women. Otherwise as you said the choice is girls like Aishwarya and all she needs to is to spreads her legs in politics.

His boring eminance Amitabh is like a rabid dog with a bone. He has lost the sense to discern what is important. Is it his age, lack of sleep, sex or just plain food... who knows. Somebody give him some... whatever he needs and help an old crotchety man. That should put us out of our Amitabh whiny reading misery.

Any of his previous painful analyses that he has put up on his blog, have failed to impress. I dont see the brilliance, the surgical precision getting to the essence of the subject at all. I see pendantic nitpicking line by line. Perhaps the man is really not that bright after all. A pity.

I have not read this Jug Suraiya article but now I must.

What I found most disturbing on his latest blog entry is that with reference to Jug Suraiya his greatest complaint listed on his own blog seems to be Bahu being Manglik or not. He has extrapolated it to all kinds of imagined slights to womankind. I would agree if his general argument made any sense and if whatshisname Jug was making a sweeping statement about women in general. If any of this was part of erudite or academic writing like he thinks it is, it would have been in the academic advisors trash a long time ago. Pshawwww.

So why is he sending you tomes about his disagreement with Jug Suraiya's article? Is he making an example of it... sort of sending you a horse's head or a parcel of dead fish? Is he trying to use you as an intermediatry? Is he whining to a non judgemental/very judgemental friend? Is he copying this and sending it to everyone with any connection to journalism? Is he expecting you to paddle Jug Suraiya's bottom? What gives? This aspect I am extremely curious about more than what he writes. The man's motivations are sometimes more lethal/tricky than the missiles.

Bihari big mouths need to amuse. Amuse they shall. However, I have to give Shatrughan Sinha credit for being much, much more than a scar faced buffoon. The man is smart. No idea about this Shekhar fella. His son's girl friend is eyecandy for sure and has a modicum of talent, so perhaps she will be put to good use. Though you never know, Shekhar may go all Bihari conservative on her in the campaign. Kangana with a pallu over her head... stop, I am getting a headache already.

About the Editor he needs to be fired. He does. Enough said.

Everything you said about village basics making the lives of rural women somewhat bearable is true. What is even more true is the reasons politicians choose not to give them these basics. Is this something you bring up when you meet with the powers that be? I hope you do. You have access where we do not.

Okay so what is Amitabh contesting... Manglik, Bahu, 50 lakhs, Temple, Suit endorsement... or his own words on his blog?

I have read what he wrote about slumdog and unless Amitabh is a really bad writer and completely unable to express himself correctly(which he could well be going by the other clap trap he writes), what Jug Suraiya understood from Amitabh's words... is exactly how I interpreted them too. Clear as day. Ofcourse 3 blog entries later he says exactly the opposite as in ... my words dont mean that. I just typed what others said, it wasnt me. Lets call bullshit when we put our foot into a clump of bullshit.

Well darling, you didnt mention that in the first instance. When you quote, it is done a certain way and a rebuttal is made in a certain way. No one just "quotes". It's elementry. Since this did not happen, what I read is your words and your reaction. Deal with it honey!

So that means he has no command over the sentences he so painfully grinds out or no spine to stand up when the tide turns. My points made exactly!

Mr. Bachchan seems to have invested a lot of time. However, if the effort is directed towards hiding facts about poverty in India behind some kind of smoke-screen or to justify it by virtue of the existence of poverty in other countries as well, then I don't agree.

I agree with you that reservation/quotas of any kind should not exist. These achieve no purpose other than breeding incompetence and perpetuating it.

I also agree that the political parties that ask for reservations for women in parliament should field more women candidates instead.

Developmental work that is required for making women's lives easier should definitely be undertaken.

However, I would not go so far as to say that Indian politics, in particular, and the lives of Indians, in general, would change drastically on account of that.

A woman i.e. Sonia Gandhi has literally been the most powerful person in India for the past five years. How much 'change' have we seen during that time period?

Earlier, her mother-in-law i.e. Indira Gandhi was the most powerful person in India for much longer than that. How much 'change' did we see during those years? Can we forget that she imposed the emergency, created the LTTE, tried to use Bhindrawaale against the Akalis and had to attack the Golden Temple when Bhindrawaale turned agaisnt her, giving rise to a strong wave of extremism in return? She promised to hatao Garibi, but how much Garibi did she really hatao?

Then we have a woman i.e. Mayawati ruling Uttar Pradesh, who claims to have built up almost her entire personal wealth (that runs into crores of rupees) through 'gifts' received from her followers. In a country where people hardly ever offer anything to God Almighty without asking for anything in return, could the 'gifts' received by Mayawati have been given without expectations of favour from the government of Uttar Pradesh? What about the allegations of extortion for the celebration of her birthday and the murder of a man who refused to pay up?

Another contemporary of Mayawati's i.e. Jayalalitha is said to have a collection of gold and diamond jewellery, sares and shoes that is unrivalled, with known sources of income being disproportionate, of course.

The one who takes the cake among women in politics at present is Maya Kodnani, however. A gynaecologist by profession, the doctor has been accused by eye-witnesses of leading a mob that butchered and burnt alive a 100 innocent people, besides distributing swords for the purpose and firing upon with a pistol on the innocent victims who tried to escape with their lives, during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots.

You, yourself, have written in detail about the current president of India, so I shall not have to expound upon her qualifications and achievements.

The only woman-politician that I can seem to put in a good word for is Sheila Dixit, who has done well as the chief minister of Delhi, despite hiccups like the BRT project.

I would say that women are fallible, just as men are, and that more women in public life is not necessarily going to bring about a revolution. We need honest and competent people in all walks of life, regardless of gender.

I normally like reading the comments here. But recently some posters have come across as pure haters. For those complaining about Amitabh's blog, why the hell are you reading it if you don't like him or his writing? BTW, Kiran AB did not slam SDM in his blog as he stated. He only posted reader comments for debate using their exact wording if you care to verify.

Anil K, I wonder if you talk about the women in your family the same way you feel free to talk about BW women.

For the SRK lovers and haters, enough please. We get that either he is 'wonderful' or 'awful'.

AB is burning himself at both ends by really pushing the envelope in fighting the press. I have written comments on his blog, but I notice only the ones where I really support him, or of course advise him to try Iyengar yoga for his back or stress relief, do they show up.. hmm... there must be hired help to sift through nearly 300 comments (or more) a day and take out the critical ones. I can only guess.

I think he has the right to respond to the press when his personal life is brought in, and I was just amazed to see the amount of energy and time he put into responding to "Jug". He deserves a Phd for that.

I whole heartedly support him in setting the out of control tabloid press, but at the same time, the press has him exactly where they want, reacting to their numerous attacks, creating more controversy, fueling the fire.

AB needs to detach from the press, I fear he will be facing burnout, if not already. Stress, anger, retaliation only create manifestations on the physical side. His life is completely off-balance given the crazy hours he works, with lack of sleep and add the expectations and the billion rupees riding on him. Thats a lot to take on his shoulders and hurting back. I would never be want in his shoes, no matter the amount of fame, glory and money that brings in.

I do appreciate his writing, he writes from his heart and inner soul. He has every right to do that. Folks who don't care about his writing, must change the channel. He is real, or as real as he can be.. I enjoy his posts, they are very telling about who he is as a person - with no judgments. His inner soul comes out in his blog posts.

"De" on the other hand is completely the real thing, given the unfettered access she has given to her blogdosts.

OMG what a remark...women can bring about change...! oh really - they may bring about change but what we have at present are bunch of politicians who will definitely bring about change-albeit downward/backward...whatever. We have mamta didi- she pride herself for shunting out Tata nano from singur, no sensible(!)person can support her for this brand of politics. Jayalalita is full of sarees and jewellery and busy in 'tea party's and conspiring. Mayawati is irritating, and she compares herself with Mother Teresa...may her soul cry in peace. Sonia madam. Shobhaa De. Aishwarya Bacchan Meera Sanyal. too sophisticated. Brinda Karat tooo blind folded in her outdated ideology.Perhaps only silver lining is from Priyanka Gandhi.

@ Kiran in NYC: thanks for providing link to Jug's write up. It saved me time. So what is Amitabh contesting ? You are right what is He contesting, and more importantly WHY is he contesting in the first place. Reason: he is going through withdrawals of some kind which I think are either Ego related or age related. Ego related, because why else does a person insist on confronting the press just because he has had to bear this for 40 years. sure, for forty years you have been only busy acting and building up your equity with no contribution to society, the poor or general well being of your country..? you are so wrapped up in your own self taht you dont see around. Poverty of general people, injustice to ordinary people, terrorism, cross border issues anything at all? We dont ever hear your views on any of these issues. So the issues closest to Mr Bachan are himself, how he has been wronged (for 40 years), his family, son, daughter in law, and of course Mr Amar Singh. He insists that he supports SP because of the help Amar Singh gave him (Financially, of course),& not for any other reason. A person of Mr Bachhan's standing is expected to have his own views/principles, and agendas, which are not necessarily any political party's manifesto. His shift from Congress loyalty to Samajwadi Party bear testimony to this...!

It would be more becoming of him had he just ignored the whole press thing even though he had blundered about the slumdog bit. That would be what a normal person would do; but not a person whose EGO is bigger than his life. So ego hurt is ego smarted. We have him bawling...!!!! let 'US' be more understanding and ignore him..! let the press do their bit and him do his.

@ Theyoginme: Here we are again.You are right about AB burning himself at both ends. He needs to chill out. As for awarding him a PhD for this excercise, I am sorry, no. He has a whole lot of intelligent but hired honchos who weed out (even slightly) negative comments for his blog, (you know that), and do all the research for him. I don't usually read his blog, but I just did and I am convinced from the language that AB has got some smart guys to do THIS research and the reportings. So you can confer the PhD on them, if you like.

Do you still appreciate his writing, from his heart and inner soul...? And yes you are right again ...his posts are very telling about who he is as a person. It's just that different people see him as different person, each one to their own perception; including the Press.

Read Jug Suraiya's article. I can understand Bachchan Sir being a little offended. It kind of sounded a little too personal.

But what beats me is why are we harping on the same tune again and again? Danny Boyle made a movie, cast some Indian stars which practically changed their lives and his too. And they won the Oscars. Some deserving, some not so deserving. But doesn’t that happen all the time?

Mr.Bachchan is confused. On the one hand, he wants to have a very good public image and he cant bear it if anyone criticises him or his family justly or unjustly. He is hugely successful, has loyal family members and powerful friends. Some of his powerful friends just dont get a clean chit from the public and that rankles him. He is angry if films in which he or his family members acted dont get critics approval. He thinks that they are unfair. He gives fitting replies to the likes of Jug who cant retaliate physically or intimidate him like Raj Thackeray does. Raj Thackeray said worse things about Bachchan and his wife but he meekly apologised instead of going for a good fight. It shows that if your enemy is weak it is alright to fight, but if your enemy is powerful try to buy peace at the cost of self respect. Just see the types of comments on his blog which are sickening to any healthy person. It is worse than buttering.

I agree with you that Jug Suraiya is a satirist and all that he writes should not be dissected and analysed. Just relax and enjoy Jug's columns ( he is monopolising the edit page these days) As for women in parliament, I personally feel that we should have at least 33% representation to start with by making ita mandatoroy for all recognised parties to allot one third of the seats they are contesting towomen. But looking at the fate of thebill which was hurriedlyintroducved ( papers snatched from the minister and torn by the BIMARU leaders) tells a pathetic tale.

Women form 50% of our population and the other 50% is also p roduced by women.

In the near future male of the species will become redundant with the cloning technique getting recognised and allowed by progressive countries.

It is too late for this election. But a movement should be started to see the women's reservation bill passed thru the new Lok Sabha and gets the assent of the President who is a woman.

I wonder why women like you donot want to enter the political arena and just watch the tamasha from the sidelines.

If Jaya, Hema, Jayaprada and now Nafisa Ali can contest why not a Shobhaa De? It can make the difference between a "De' and night

I liked the article...my arguement is, the Women candidates you talked about, are more suitable for the Urban areas for the time being. Empowered, intelligent and independent women is what India needs and deserves.

The challenge at the rural level is that even if these women stand up for the elections, in most probability, they would be dictated on what to do by their husbands, in-laws or god knows who! As you mentioned, the first step would have to be to empower and make the women at rural areas self-sufficient...

SECONDLY, made a curious observation about what you had to say about Jag-Amitabh conflict. I am an avid reader of both yours and Amitabh's blog.

Of course it would annoy anyone if some family member of their's is made of fun of (sarcastically or in whatever manner) without any reason! Your referring to Jag as a "humour writer" worries me on exactly to what extent do you take yourselves accountable?

What would be really great to see as one of the posts, would be to write the position Media stands for, on all this debate about Media becoming a money mongering, insensitive and careless monster!

Hi first thing first before everyone jumps on the bandwagon of why I am doing this - I DO read Amitabh’s blog and also watch hindi soaps here in UK as they assure me that I am right in what I am doing in my life… God reading the comments left by his EF on Amitabh’s blog is like dipping into a cheesiest dip with my spicy nachos lol they are so cheesier that the French cheese I get here is blushing (taking some writing tips from Shobha)

It is interesting to see that a public figure like Amitabh gets offended so easily by any tom, dick n harry writing abt him… If he is so much worried about his name not being used then he shud stop paying heed to these people and gaining more media attention..or is it a planned move by his publicist to keep him in news and help his forthcoming movie by RGV on a similar subject.. by giving sucha BIG BHASHAN to editor of Mr. India (pun intended) what is trying to gain… I was bored reading his response..i am sure Shobha u had to have few martinis n bloody marys to gulp doewn the heavy stuff… or did u just bin it … I personally feel it’s a conspiracy..Amitabh pays these morons to write this crap and then he replies and all are happy including TOI for selling more copies.. and Amitabh getting money for his temple donations for feeding ppor ahhhhhh No body cares abt these views of SM here in west and Amitabh is unknown to all…

I am sure he has kept a team of professional to go thru all the crap on him every morning..and then he writes this in his spare time… or I feel its his age catching up… and the icing and cherry on the truffle cake is the comments lefts by his EF..goddddd aaathoooooooooooooooooooooo

Shobha, maybe I cannot even begin empathizing with you on gender issues, but it surprises me that you are so bitter about men! Why o why? It comes across as blatantly vindictive, to say the least.

If the supposedly male chauvinist business magazine editor said women are incapable of deciphering balance sheets, why do you have to view it from a sexist perspective? Maybe, he was unprejudiced and was plainly stating an observation. Just maybe. I agree what he said was not politically correct, but then who is these days (e.g. an interesting and unpredictable lady with a lastname that starts with a D). And plus what he said was obviously off-the-record!

Introspection you are too quick to judge people it seems. I would read more if his posts before coming to judgement on AB, especially on what he does and does not do to help the poor his staff doing the writing for him yada yada yada. Let's remember we all have Egos .... Yours truly included. The blogosphere allows the writer to truly express themselves without editorial scraping. That is what bloggers including AB , De and myself do here. We express ourselves how we see best. I think AB writes very well oh his own and deserve credit for that. If he has felt attacked for 40 years and has taken it silently and now feels compelled to respond to the outof control press he has the right to and should be respected for that. If he is a different view on Slumdog let's respect his opinion and not belittle him. Freedom of speech and expression doesn't give us the moral authoriity to do that. You and I don't know AB personally. And yes here we do go again...... :)

as usual ur comments have aimed well and I can only pray that they make an impact on at least one individual who can make a difference in our politics. Gender inequality is rampant in all sectors... I am a civil engineer by profession... a field dominated with men, so I know exactly what you mean! But I must say, I have handled admiration for my work along with their initial skeptical looks. What I am saying is if you do well in your field (and you have to be better than the average men to be considered even ok) you will attain their approval, not that anyone needs it but it sure does make things lot easier. Then again I am talking about educated minds here, who to begin with aren't extremely biased against women. It must be far worse in politics which has for centuries been rattled with gender bias.

Shobha,Another good write up ,Amitabh jee accept thsi that u have llost this time and there is no looking back now,I was surprised to see there were so many lines wasted on Two Bihari,No need of that at all.

Education and only Education is the only way we can ensure growth in every sphere of todays market for womens.As far as political parties are related they must go through http://www.meerahsanyal.in/?page_id=2, then they would no what manifesto is all about.

Hope you had a good Trip to Delhi,your next post will be on that journalist,will also contain Amir SRK Meet and on Indian Cricket team (just expecting)

I see cinema like Slumdog, born into brothels, salaam bombay or formula bhandarkars - flicks... as an opportunity - an opportunity for us to see to it that the grim reality now, is not the truth till eternity.

The beggar syndicate doesnt exist??? Sonakachi is a myth??? What have we done for the kids with a begging bowl after slumdog millionaire? have any of us tried to address the issue of the beggar syndicate... that maims kids in the streets???NO we dint, as we were very busy nitpicking on danny boyle. Danny Boyle, has told the truth. NOW LETS JOIN HANDS and take action against the lamentable reality.

Pa B, if you felt so strongly, please invest your time energy and fans in eradicating the consortium of mendicant friars that exist.

Amar Singh Yesterday - Mulayam Singh has to choose either me or Azam Khan. Otherwise I am out of Samajwaadi party and Mulayam can take care of his party.

Amar Singh Today - I can leave this world but not Samajwaadi party.

What does this tell about Prannoy Roy, Barkha Dutt on NDTV who have always loved this leader for SELECTED secular values.

What does this tell about Amitabh Bachhan who has the headline on his blog (Main hoon unke saath, khade jo rakhte seedhi apani reed). In AB's case it is simple. This GREAT man is somehow entangled by a crooked politician Amar Singh who knew the political milage he can get by helping AB in the past. He is getting the dividends of it at the cost of AB. Now he should be careful not to destroy his own image by trying to project Abhishek as a great actor...Most people know he is below average. Least said about her daughter-in-law Aishwarya will be better because everyone knows her past history and she is not "doodh ki dhuli" to be a role model for today's girl.

After being snubbed on her own show "WE THE PEOPLE" by certain people on excessive coverage on Varun Gandhi which was shown 240 times I felt that my criticism of media in my crude and blunt way has some effect. At least they have realized their STUPID JOURNALISM and not showing that news just because it was juicy. But how long will it last??? probably for few days.

Isn't it time to beat the shit out of these type of journalists who are biased towards certain parties.

Maybe, just maybe AB is indebted to this politician, and AB is being honorable with his loyalty inform of his payment to the debt he took from this Shylock.

He had no choice but take the money when he needed it. You can claim it was a bad choice but.. and then find me a politician, and metaphorically "a person" who has not been struck by the sickness of "corruption"...

So all of you who sit on a pedestal and shame AB and his family I challenge you to say you have never been dishonest, never made a mistake, never had significant others before marriage, never lied, never committed a sin!!!!!

If you have never, then my hats off to you, you should all be taking Sanyas in the deep jungles somewhere not in this modern Indian society where corruption is widespread, a way life for many and everyone gets caught in it, even the innocent bystanders!

I guess this society is not deserved of your presence. "Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone - ALONE" and not in the company of us/these mortal sinners.

Obviously many of us have committed sins and therefore won't be eligible to go to jungle. But unlike role models from bollywood these sins do not affect masses in this country and sins from ordinary person (if committed carefully) will die with them.

But things which are in public domain...such as change of partners every 2 years, giving kissing scenes just before marriage be it Aishwarya or bigdi aullad Kareena kapoor...Their innocent sins have been multiplied by other breed of sinners called journalists from TV news channels. They encash on these by showing them numerous time every single day.

Bachhan saahab ko criticize karke hum jaise sinners ko bhi chot lagti hai jaalim...tu kya samjhega. Because he indeed is a good, descent, down to earth man. Yeh Amar Singh ka debt thoda hurt kar gayaa. Now we have read the pain he was in, I think he will be alright if he can stay neutral or at least, keep quiet on Abhishek's average work and Aishwarya's padamshree....I am sure he will be in perfect harmony with his family and his unknown critiques.

Now now, we don't have to get verbally abusive here.. gaali key binha be debate chalta hey.

Baba Ramdev jaise yoga sikhane ke liye aur bhi kabootar behte hein - just visit Rishikesh...:) I am a student of Iyengar yoga, I don't teach and my teacher is BKS Iyengar and his very senior students. They don't jump around on stage and attempt to teach millions at a ago with fingers flicking their noses... its more methodical, effective and scientific.

Your anguish over the "fact" women are not given equal opportunity in politics hit's the bull's eye. Sprouting from a culture that has seen women in kitchen for more than a century, men take it as their birth right that they are better than women in a lot of aspects which is a lot of crap.

But let me ask you something.... what are you commenting on the women who go blindly go behind parties for the short remunerations that the party gives them than for their own rights. How can Sanjay Dutt's wife take it in such easy strides the words of her husband when he says that he will make his wife to contest in his place and he will campign for her.

Isnt it like using her when she is needed. Women need to fight out their way out of this.....

Shobhaa, on a serious note...dont you think the women are to blamed ??? It is upon them to come to the forefront right ? India is no longer the land of the subdued beti/patni. Women are in the forefront of everthing and politics should be no different !

where are u shobhaaa..? its already thursday! anil kumar, WHAT THE HELL IS THE PROBLEM IF A WOMAN HAS MANY RELATIONSHIPS OR SHARE AN ONSCREEN KISS. u speak like such a chauvinist! wonder why men are glorified as PLAYBOYS and females labelled SLUTS.

Priyadarshni ji. Those who glorify men as playboy are actually media sl_ts. All of them act as anchors on national TV such as NDTV, Star news.

And the same female in media on TV media work overtime to glorify other sl_ts in bollywood.

Loads of them have given onscreen kisses and they are 3rd rated "kapade utaaru" heroine. But some of them are portrayed as role model for this generation in news media.

On SPECIAL OCCASSIONS like Independence day, Diwali, KaruaChauth or programs like 7 wonders of India on NDTV, these media people in "jugalbandi" with Bollywood bear the Indian flag, wear traditional dresses and adore traditional Indian things...Rest of the year they act as sl_ts.

If these women are kept out of TV spotlight then I think no one is bothered if they have 3 partners or 5. No one hounded Amitabh bachhan, Jaya or Rekha when that triangle was brewing up in the 70's. It stayed in gossip magazines like Stardust etc.

I never heard Pratima Puri or Salma Sultan on Doordarshan news discussing how Amitabh's hand was around Rekha's waist and Jaya tried to pull him away.

BECAUSE people were not subjected to watch that BREAKING NEWS every single day, it didn't affect the kids with these complex realities of life. But the kind of role media and bollywood are playing in shaping this country will have dire consequences in next decade or so.

We will have loads of western ills in our society, but unlike western countries, no resources and system to help the victims of western ills. These things are still in its infancy...But just watch out the net result of this "Nangapan" in next 10-20 years beamed on TV every single day.

Take the American example. They thought by bringing BLACKS from Ghana and other african nations they can become rich without hurting their backs. They did become rich and exploited blacks for 200 years. But now if you talk to small town Americans on how they feel when their white daughters sometimes making black guys as their life partners. And you can see the pain in their eyes and the best answer they could give is that that's the legacy of slavery. Not to mention that interracial kids always find it diffiuclt to adjust with either blacks or whites. If bollywood meets hollywood...you will see some of that inter-racial tamasha spilling over to India.

If we glorify multiple relationships on TV then what is the difference between animal and human beings. And what's the affect of all this on 8 or 10 year olds who are the number one TV addicts.

Does someone who has a pet bitch allow that animal to go and have some fun with fellow dogs on the Delhi roads during mating season. Their season is only for few weeks a year. The human beings have their season for 365 days a year.

I hope that gives a different view. May be a crude view but neverthless truth in many sense.

I guess you are becoming a little too agressive regarding the cultural change ... times changes and so does people... no I am not advocating anything here... everthing is in our mind ...

and btw way in kissing scenes, in case you didnt notice , both heorine and hero kisses... so what name have you given for the Hero???... why always points are raised at Heroine... wasn't Hrithik married at the time of Dhoom-2!!! why such hypocrisy!!!

as for Role Models... its the media that glorified them ... then why blame the Actors...

I think that going for the elections should be the last thing that women should target.. this field itself is so questionable that the genuine leaders are also not able to mark their presence.. think about it.. men who are changing their party every season, are getting benefited by the cardholders.. not the people who have worked hard from the ground level itself..

comparing the genuineness of any general lady to the average-genuine males, the genuineness, softness and endurance would be higher for the lady.. so this makes them to go on the back seat by the cardholders who just want seats, and not deciding on what the policies should be..

changing the system of indian politics is a long process which would start with the presence of active, dynamic, initiative taker, and bold ladies in the key positions of the industries.. just like Indra Nooyi or Kochhar.. once they are seen as celebrity rather than just ladies, their thinking, policies, plans are by default accepted.. if more positions are filled by these people, the desire would be higher for other ladies to capture those places.. this feedback would work in long run for politics as well.. or to say, this feedback would work for the cleaning of indian political system..

anil kumar, i completely agree with you on what you said about us made to watch such 'breaking news' but why are you demeaning aishwarya. people do have failed and miserable relationships and onscreen kisses. that do not make them sluts. i hope you understand. cheers.

There is term used in computing world called WYSIWYG which translates to WHAT-YOU-SEE-IS-WHAT-YOU-GET. This WYSIWYG phenomenon affects mind more than anything else.

And there is a famous saying "WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND". It's not about rotation of earth.

The results of media's role are already out...worst kind of crimes are erupting against women. Everyone thinks he/she is immune to the heinous crimes until it strikes them real hard. By that time it's too late.

You also said "Hrithik married at the time of Dhoom-2. why such hypocrisy".

It's not as black and white as you think. Because the nature has not made a man and woman equal in terms of their physical abilities. They are equal in mental capacity and infact women are more focussed and responsible than men on loads of other things in our society. But a woman has to bear lot more effort, pain and responsibility if she indulges in a relationship with man. If she gets pregnant by just having some adventure, she has to go through lot more physically than a man has to. And it doesn't stop after 9 months..it actually begins after 9 months.

That's why this hypocracy about men.

Privately it doesn't matter what an individual does...whether Hrithik practised dhoom-II kissing scene with Aishwarya whole night, before actually giving that scene in front of camera or his wife Suzzane was practising Monica Lewinski act with her driver Himmat Singh in the back seat of car having tinted glass. No one care and I am sure Himmat Singh won't spill beans.

Some of these men even walk away and deny their child. Remember it all starts with a simple kiss.

Imran Khan denied for several years his child with Sita White, Vivian Richards didn't stay with her daughter after his adventure with Nina Gupta, Sanjay Gandhi would have left Menka Gandhi high and dry but because of threat from his Sikh father he was forced to marry Menka. There are loads of other examples.

If you read Vivian Richards autobiography, he says that his father also had two wives. He still lives with Miriam...his first wife. For him it didn't matter to have a child from Nina as he was lonely at that time. Just imagine how that grown up child must be thinking NOW and what kind of respect her parents can get from her. Western societies are full of such examples.

Other day Nina gupta was mentioning the emptiness she feels for being not in a long term relationship still makes her sad.

Life is not as simple as being portrayed by media with the help of bajaaru bollywood heroines. And they send wrong message to innocent girls.

Shobha madam was telling something on the lines of Maa ki laadli bigad gayi hai...and she is here to stay. Don't remember in what context she said. But if she is with media and bajaaru actresses of last 10 years then I must say that it sounds very pleasant to ears, if you belong to elite class and is a great politically correct statement. But if the same "laadli" is from a poor uneducated family and indulges in bollywood behaviour...then life is not going to be easy for her. And there are millions of poor souls in this socially divided country who unfortunatley are in majority (8 is to 1) as we speak.

My first preference is still to lynch irresponsible TV media people in public. They are the prime reason behind increasing crimes against women and creating a criminal society for future.

You are questioning why Aishwarya Rai. I know I am not completely fair...but she is the face of bollywood for sometime and someone from her fraternity has to take the blame along with media. She has been made a woman icon in india by our media and obviously she doesn't mind taking fruits of this image whenever possible. So far so good.

But if her own history in relationships is not clean and has done objectionable scenes just before marriage and in some people's thinking DO NOT deserve to be role model for girls and still keep coming in front of TV media as "Bhartiya Naari" then I think someone needs to tell her history and deeds.

She knows that she doesn't deserve padamshree this year...but took it graciously neverthless. She knows that for this year, padamshree was won by 93 others and there were 10 people who won Padam Vibhushan which is higher than padamshree as an award. But when media ONLY reported her name (and Akshay's) on winning the award and interviewed ONLY her and ignored other 133 then I didn't hear her cribbing about NDTV media's shoddy journalism. She jumped to first flight to come to Delhi to dance for NDTV's 7 wonders of India program, as if she knows more about Indian culture than those who live and breath in it.

There is this love and nangapan between bollywood and media. As I said before they work together in jugalbandi and hard to separate. The bollywood is desperate to show their faces and designer dresses on TV for publicity and media needs their juicy stories.

They both are busy in MAKING MONEY at all costs. The concept of EARNING MONEY no longer exists.

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